The present application relates to cooling of a heat producing device, using a thermoelectric cooler arranged as a super cooler. More specifically, the present application teaches cooling of a device, such as a digital mirror device, which requires a specified temperature gradient across the device, using a supercooled element.
Electronic devices often have specified cooling requirements. One device that has specific cooling requirements is a digital micromirror device (xe2x80x9cDMDxe2x80x9d) available from Texas Instruments (xe2x80x9cTIxe2x80x9d). The manufacturer of this device has specified a maximum overall temperature for the device and also a specified maximum temperature gradient between the front and rear faces of the device during operation.
For example, the temperature of the specific DMD used in this application needs to be kept below 55xc2x0 C., however, in this application it is desirable to keep the device at or below ambient. This may allow operation in an ambient environment up to 55xc2x0 C., such as may be encountered in a stage theater or studio environment. The temperature differential between the front and rear of the DMD cannot exceed 15xc2x0. Besides the heat from the operation of the DMD itself, large amounts of heat from a high intensity light source must be dissipated.